New anti-EZLN Rebel Group in Chiapas
	  id BAA22534; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 01:55:26 -0400


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit



   MEXICO CITY, Sept 8 (AFP) - A new rebel force has carved out a
presence in at least eight towns in Mexico's Chiapas state, press
reports warned Monday.
   Town authorities have already informed the federal army and the
attorney general's office about the Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary
Indigenous Movement (MIRA), the daily Excelsior reported.
   Other reports said the MIRA was advised by retired military
staff and likely made up of former town leaders and leaders of
social organizations that depend on the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI).
   News of the MIRA comes just as members of the Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN) were gathering in the Chiapas capital, San
Cristobal, to start a march to Mexico City to demand that the
government keep its promises to indigenous Mexicans.
   Most of the population in Chiapas is indigenous ethnic Maya,
from the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and Tojolabal groups.
   The Zapatista march gets under way in earnest Tuesday, 18 months
after negotiations with the government broke down after the EZLN
accused the government of failing to implement the only agreement
they had reached, on indigenous culture and rights.
   The government has not sent the accords to Congress for them to
be added to the Constitution despite the fact the deal was struck
after a multi-party legislative panel to which the government gave
authority to negotiate hammered it out with the EZLN rebels.
   The EZLN also are going to Mexico City to launch a legal
political party, an idea they announced more than a year ago but
only now are seeking to make official. Supporters from 26 of
Mexico's 31 states were expected to take part in the party
founding.
 
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